


A Piece for Them

by Barbara_Lazuli



Series: Piece by Piece [1]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, High School AU, Human AU, Spin-Off
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-26
Updated: 2017-02-16
Packaged: 2018-09-20 02:24:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9471248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Barbara_Lazuli/pseuds/Barbara_Lazuli
Summary: Lapis thinks everyone else in her life is either uninteresting, confusing or frustrating. Now it's time to see what they think.1: Pearl's backstory2: Peridot's PoV on chapter 1 of Pieces of Me3: Rupphire backstory





	1. Half

**Author's Note:**

> Since my other work, Pieces of Me, focuses on Lapis' point of view, I decided to make this spin-off to show the other characters' point of view. 
> 
> "But Barabara, you could just put that as another chapter in your work."
> 
> Eh. I don't really feel comfortable doing that. Pieces of Me is about Lapis, aside from her romance with Peridot, so I decided to just make an Extra for the other characters. A "piece" for them, too.

When Pearl was three, her mother gave birth to Sapphire. She was small and except for her full lips, she looked exactly like their father. Pearl was a little disappointed. She hoped to have a sister that looked like her, but it was fine. She’s just happy that she has someone she can play with. At least they both had the same eyes, but then her mother noticed that her left eye looked different. It was discolored. According to the doctors, one of Sapphire’s eyes was blind.

“Your sister’s going to be… a little different than we expected,” her mother said when they were back in the hospital bed, Sapphire sleeping soundly in her arms. “You’re going to have to look out for her, okay?”

Pearl was a good daughter. She listened to her mother. Now, she had to be a good sister, too.

“Okay.”

When Pearl was four and Sapphire was a year old, their father died. Their mother became even more depressed than usual. She lost someone again. Ever since then, she barely saw her mother because of her work, and auntie Holly was always the one who took care of them. Their mom always met with a woman named Dina because of business, and she would always bring her daughter along to play with Pearl. She was two years older and she talked a lot, but Pearl didn’t mind. She felt less lonely when she played with June.

When Pearl was 8 and Sapphire was 5, kids made fun of her eye patch, so Pearl thought she should just take it off. Kids then started looking at her weirdly because of her white eye, so she used her hair to cover it up. Kids thought she was weird, still, so they gave up. By the time Sapphire was 6, half of her face was covered by her bangs, and so was Pearl’s. Pearl didn’t have to, but it made Sapphire feel better. Feel less weird. Feel less alone.

Pearl was ten when she found it, and it was only on accident, too. She didn’t mean to snoop on her mom’s things. It was just there, on her bed accompanied by an open envelope and a letter. She didn’t read the contents of the letter. She didn’t even look at the letter to see who sent it. Pearl was a good girl. She was a good daughter. She couldn’t, however, help the fact that she caught a glimpse of who was in the picture. It was a little girl and a man. When her curiosity finally won, she picked up the photograph to take a closer look.

She didn’t know the man. He didn’t even look like all the other adults she sees in the neighbourhood. He had tan skin and dark hair and eyes. The little girl did, too, except for her eyes. She had blue eyes, mom’s eyes. Except for the nose, she looked like Pearl. When her mom caught her looking at the picture, she wasn’t mad. She told Pearl and Sapphire that they had another sister, someone that’s a year older than Pearl. 

Her name was Lapis. Pearl thought that it was an odd name, but she didn’t dislike it.

Their mother had apologized over and over again, but Pearl wasn’t mad. They didn’t understand then what having half-sister only a year older than her had meant when it came to their mother’s loyalty to her husband, so they didn’t care. Pearl’s just happy that she had an older sister.

She wanted to meet her, but she didn’t know what she’d do when she did. Would it be alright to depend on her like Sapphire does? Could she ask her for help with her assignments? When they play house, can she be the baby for once?

When Pearl was 14 and Sapphire was 11, their mother worked even more later nights. Sometimes, she even has to go out of town, and she wouldn’t go home until after a few days. They barely got to see her anymore, and it was affecting the both of them, now that they’re older. Singing with June in their club made Pearl feel better, but Sapphire didn’t have that, so her sister grew quitter and more detached. She was getting worried, but then one day, she saw someone visiting their home that isn’t Holly or Dina or June. It was a little kid that’s Sapphire’s age, and she wanted to play with her. Sapphire refused. Their mother doesn’t really want them to play with a kid whose parents their mother doesn’t know. Sapphire was trying to be a good daughter, she wanted to follow what their mother had said, but their mother wasn’t there right now, and Pearl was a good sister, and she let them play under her watch. Ever since then, all Sapphire talked about was “Ruby did this…” and “Ruby said that..” It was a little annoying, if Pearl had to be honest, but Sapphire was happier, so she could endure a bit of it.

When Pearl was 16 and Sapphire was 13, they received news that Lapis’ father had died. Lapis had no one else now, so their mother made arrangements to let her live with them here, in America. When she arrived, their mother wasn’t even there to fetch her at the airport. The only ones who were there were Sapphire, who was excited, and Pearl, who was nervous. She doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do. She grew up with Sapphire, so she knows how to be a good sister to her. Lapis, however, is practically a stranger. What if she didn’t like her? They had different fathers, after all. What if she blamed their family for her father’s death? It’s illogical, and Pearl knew it, but she can’t help herself.

When they finally saw her, she’s different from the picture Pearl saw six years ago. Her smile was replaced by a deadpan expression and her dark hair was dyed blue. When she looked at them, it was with the same blue eyes that they share with their mother; cold, with something sad hidden behind them.

“Welcome.”

Pearl doesn’t dare say “home”.


	2. How to Approach a Pretty Girl You Want to Draw

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When she first saw her, the first thought that came into her mind was the color blue. 
> 
> Her second thought was, "I want to draw her."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This got longer than I thought. Anyway, I wanted to update this first before PoM's upcoming angst that is chapter 10 hahaha

**Day 1**

When Peridot saw her, the first thing that popped into her mind was the color blue. She was practically covered in it; her blue dyed hair, her blue denim skirt, her blue plaid shirt and her deep blue eyes. To be honest, she thought it’s a little over-the-top. Peridot’s favourite color was green, but you don’t see her looking like some green monster threw up on her. But then she had another thought in her mind.

_I want to draw her._

She didn’t pay attention when the girl said where she came from, but she was pretty sure one of her classmates said she’s Asian. The girl had a slightly wide jaw and nose. Her tan skin surprisingly complemented her dyed hair and she’s only slightly taller than Peridot. 

She’s beautiful. Like a piece of art.

She _really_ wanted to draw her. 

Their entire History period, she spent it looking at the transfer student.

No, wait. Lazuli. Her name is Lapis Lazuli. Like the rock. The _blue_ rock.

She didn’t listen to what her teacher said. She hated History, anyway. She’ll just read the chapter later at home. Right now, all she wanted to do was memorize all the curves and edges of the girl’s face so she can draw her later when she has the time. 

 

“Who’s that?”

As soon as she got home, she immediately sat down in one of their couches and took out her little sketchbook. She must’ve spent over an hour drawing there, because June usually got home an hour after Peridot did.

“Hey!” Peridot hissed as she tucked her sketchbook out of sight. “You can’t just look at my sketchbook like that without my permission!” 

June huffed. “You weren’t answering me because you were too distracted by your,” June scrunches her face, “ _scribbles_.”

Peridot sighed and continued her sketching. “They’re _not_ scribbles,” she grumbles.

“Who is that, anyway? Some new character in Camp Pining Hearts?”

“Ha! I wish. No, she’s Lapis Lazuli. She just transferred today at our school.”

Peridot looks at her sketch with narrowed eyes. It doesn’t even look like Lazuli. She really didn’t manage to draw her properly. She probably should get a good look at her when she sees her again.

June raised a brow. “Oh? Is she your new friend?”

“Well, no. I didn’t really talk to her.”

“Well then why are you drawing her?” June put her hand on her hip. “Isn’t it weird to be drawn by someone you don’t even know?”

“Wh- no,“ Peridot gave it a thought. “I don’t know. Is it?”

June just gave her a look that said she should and headed up the stairs toward her room. “Whatever. Just don’t forget to finish all your work for tonight.”

Peridot kept telling herself that June was just saying that because she didn’t like how she recently started drawing all the time. She told herself that, but closed her book and went to her room to do her homework anyway.

 

**Day 2**

“Hey what are you looking for, Per-per?”

Peridot looked up to see Amethyst standing over her. She was checking whether Lapis was in her class right now, so she must have not noticed her.

“Oh, nothing. Just, looking for something.”

Amethyst would usually pry more but she just left it at that. When she sat down next to her she seemed excited. “Well, anyway, did you see the transfer student already?”

“Lazuli? Yeah, she’s in my History class.”

“Yeah? Did you know that she’s Pearl and Sapphire’s big sis?”

Peridot tilted her head. “Huh? But her surname’s Lazuli, not Bleu.”

Amethyst swung her legs. “It’s ‘cuz they don’t have the same dad. Steven said that Sapphire told him.”

Peridot glanced at the door, but it didn’t seem like she was going to be in this class. 

“I don’t really see the resemblance, but she looks pretty cool.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, but not about their resemblance. “She is pretty.”

Amethyst looked at her like she said something funny, but she didn’t say anything else. The teacher finally arrived.

 

 

“Hey, Peridot, who’s that you’re drawing?” Steven said as he sat down next to Peridot with Ruby to his other side. 

“Oh!” Peridot smiled at her friends. “Hello, Steven, Ruby.”

It was already lunchtime, and the only people she had it with were Ruby and Steven. Amethyst had hers scheduled at a different time, and she no longer had Pearl to bicker with, so it had recently become a little quieter.

Peridot used to like the quiet, but now, she felt uneasy when it actually was. She guessed that it was probably what having friends did to her.

With a mouthful of fries, Steven leaned over to look at her sketchbook, but Peridot closed it so he couldn’t see. June’s word’s still echoed in her mind.

_It’s creepy._

“Hey! No peeking!”

“Awe…” Steven pouted. “But you always let me see…”

“What’s wrong, Peridot?” Ruby asked with mild curiosity. “Steven’s right. You’re always proud of showing your drawings off to us. You’re using a different one, too.”

“It,” Peridot hesitated, “it’s not a big deal… It’s just, it doesn’t really look good.”

“Seriously?” Ruby looked at her incredulously. “The stuff you draw always look good.”

“Yeah, Peridot!” Steven exclaimed, thankfully after swallowing, “You’re almost getting as good as Pearl!”

That got her attention. “Really?”

“Uh-huh. So, can you show me?”

Peridot almost gave it to him. “Wait, no, I’m not! Ha! Nice try, Universe!”

“Awe…” Steven slouched in his seat while Ruby pat her on the back. “Come on, Peri… Pretty please?”

Steven bat those brown eyes at her, and she tried to close her eyes so she didn’t have to see, but Ruby joined in on the puppy dog eyes, too.

She lost.

“Fine… cloddy children… always thinking they can get what they want…” she grumbled as they happily flipped through her book. 

When they got to the page she had been working on, they looked at it contemplatively. 

“Who’s this?” Ruby asked.

“She’s a classmate. Well, a new one. She just transferred yesterday.”

“Ohh…” Ruby dropped her fist in her open palm. “That girl with blue hair?” She looked at the sketch again. “But, Peridot, this doesn’t –“

“I know!” Peridot raised her hands in exasperation. “It doesn’t look like her! Well, excuse me for not getting it right after only seeing her _yesterday_!”

“Whoa, there!” Ruby motioned for her to calm down, which wasn’t often, since the younger girl was the one who usually had a short fuse. “I didn’t say it was bad.”

“This is really great, Peridot,” Steven was still looking at the sketch. “She’s really pretty. Are you sure she doesn’t look like this in real life? I haven’t seen her yet.”

“Affirmative,” Peridot nodded. “She’s much prettier in person. I just really can’t get her nose and cheeks right.”

“How did you even manage to draw her anyway?” Ruby took a spoonful of pudding. “Did you, like, stare at her the whole time you had your class?”

“… uh…”

Ruby stopped her spoon midway and smirked. “Seriously?”

“What? I really wanted to draw her, okay?”

“Yeah,” Ruby’s grin got bigger and Peridot didn’t know why. Steven was trying to hide a smile, too. “’Cuz she’s pretty?”

“Yes!” Peridot was exasperated again. “Why are you both smiling like that? You’re _thirteen_! Kids aren’t supposed to be making fun of people older than them!”

“That’s actually what most kids always do,” Ruby pointed out. “And you look like you’re our age anyway.” Peridot narrowed her eyes. “But don’t worry, we’re not making fun of you.”

“I think it’s cute,” Steven said as he gave her sketchbook back.

She tilted her head disbelievingly. “Cute?”

“Yeah,” Ruby nodded her head. “It’s like you have a crush or something.”

“What? That’s ridiculous!”

Peridot may have recently accepted socializing with people, but she was definitely far from being able to understand them. Not even her own sister. Juniper thought it was creepy but Ruby and Steven thought it was cute. People are so confusing.

She just wanted to draw a beautiful person because it’s what art’s for! Was wanting to do that so creepy or cute?

If only she could see her once again so she could do it right, too.

 

 

**Day 3**

Peridot had decided that she was going to talk to her today and ask for her permission. Unfortunately, June’s words still bothered her, but she figured that it wouldn’t be creepy if she had the other girl’s permission.

Unfortunately, Peridot didn’t take into account the possibility of Lapis coming late to school. This disabled Peridot from approaching the other girl unless she wanted to interrupt her teacher’s lecture. 

She opted to look at her once again, instead. Seeing only her profile didn’t give her a good angle, but it was a some help, nonetheless.

She’ll have to re-read the chapter her teacher discussed again later at home.

 

 

**Day 4**

“Dude, are you seriously still drawing that Lapis Lazuli chick?” Amethyst said instead of greeting her as she took the seat to Peridot’s left. 

“Yes, and I won’t stop until I get it right!” she said as she furiously erased another unsuccessful sketch.

“Why don’t you just ask her to model for you? Like what I do for the Art club?”

“I was going to… but she was late going to class and she immediately left right after so I didn’t get the chance to talk to her.”

“You _could_ talk to her outside of our classes.”

“But I’m scared… And shy. And I don’t know how!”

“Dude, it’s real simple.” She motioned for her to come closer, and she obliged. Once she got closer, Amethyst put and arm around her shoulder. “First, you gotta walk up to her.”

“Okay.”

“Then introduce yourself.”

“Right.”

“Then get down on one knee and – hey!” Amethyst chortled as she rubbed the arm Peridot slapped. “You hit like a girl.”

“I am a girl,” she grumbled. “Can you be serious for once?”

“I was! All you gotta do is approach her and ask her to model for you.”

“But what if she says no?”

“Then you move on,” she said it like rejection didn’t hurt. “It’s not like it’s a big deal, right?”

She was right. It wasn’t.

So why was she strangely filled with so much anxiety and excitement?

 

**Day 5**

Lazuli was late. Again. She didn’t have the chance to talk to her. Again.

It seemed that with every succeeding day that she saw her, the less motivation Lazuli showed in her facial expressions and movements. Her sister’s, Pearl and Sapphire, weren’t exactly the most energetic people in beach city, but Lazuli was aloof in a way that the Bleus weren’t. Pearl and Sapphire had purpose in the things they did, but Lazuli seemed to want to put as little effort as she can in everything.

Well, everything except for swimming.

When they finally had their P.E. that day on Friday, Peridot saw a Lazuli more alive than she had ever been the past week. Peridot wasn’t particularly good at swimming - or any physical activity, for that matter – but she enjoyed watching her classmates that did. She liked watching them move and how the water flowed with them. Everyone else was better than her, but she was surprised to see someone swim laps around the pool like moving in water didn’t make her movements heavy at all. (That’s what she hated about water, by the way.)

It was Lapis Lazuli, and she was swimming like the water was in her control and nothing was weighing her down. When she finally decided to stop at the edge of the pool, she brushed her wet blue locks from her face while wearing a satisfied smile.

Peridot felt her mouth go slack, and her eyes were probably dry from not blinking, despite there being so much water in the vicinity. She has never seen her smile before, and she couldn’t believe she only realized that now.

When Peridot had decided that she wanted to draw Lapis Lazuli, she didn’t really know how she wanted to do it. She just did. Now she knew exactly what she wanted to do.

When P.E. finally finished, she rushed changing her clothes. She had noticed that Lazuli always left immediately after class. She didn’t want to miss her now. The other girl still managed to leave before she finished, but she didn’t give up. When she got to the halls, she looked for the color blue. When she finally spotted her just near the school doors, her heart stopped but her legs speed up. She forgot all the things Amethyst told her to do and how June said that drawing a girl you barely knew was strange.

She didn’t care. She just wanted to see Lazuli’s smile permanently sketched on her canvas.

“Hey, wanna model for me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter reaaallly got out of hand. It was supposed to be only aroung 1k words. I gotta sleep.


	3. Asymmetry is Beauty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby's not an incredibly smart kid, but she knows beauty when she sees it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had way too much fun writing this.  
> Here are the names I gave for the Ruby Squad are:
> 
> Navy - Nat  
> Leggy - Leslie  
> Army - Amy  
> Eyeball - Iris  
> Doc - Ruben because I couldn't think of a name related to doc
> 
> Anyway, here's some fluffy Rupphire to make up for the angst I posted on V-day.

“Ruby, may I speak with you?” Vidalia, their Art teacher, motions for her to come over.

11-year-old Ruby inwardly squirms from where she’s standing. Her cousins pause from walking to the door, Nat and Leslie worriedly look at her, while Amy grunts, grumbling that she doesn’t want to be held up by her crazy shenanigans. 

“We’ll wait for you outside,” Nat puts a comforting hand on her shoulder and Leslie nods.

With unsure steps, she walks toward her teacher, recalling if she did anything wrong this past week. She hasn’t beaten someone up ever since she got scolded a month ago. That’s actually a pretty good record considering her reputation. Still, she doesn’t know what she did that warranted the teacher to talk to her, so when she’s finally in front of her, she has no clue what she’s going to be reprimanded for.

“I’m really sorry Ma’am, I’ll never do it again. I promise!” she pleads before asking in an unsure tone. “But what exactly did I do?”

“Don’t worry, Kid, you’re not in trouble,” Vidalia waves her hand dismissively. Ruby relaxes, but Vidalia raises a brow. “Unless… _did_ you do something?”

“No!” she stomps her feet indignantly. “I haven’t punched someone in the face for over a month!” She puts her hands in her pockets as she huffs. “Garnet said that I should stop doing it.”

“Garnet. She’s your sister, right? The eleventh grader.”

“Yup!” she proudly nods.

“I thought I asked you to draw at least one of you parents for your homework. You could’ve drawn your mom, but you drew Garnet, instead.”

“I don’t really have one,” she shrugs. “Garnet’s my mom.”

Vidalia gives her an apologetic look. “I’m so sorry for that.”

“Is that why you called for me?”

“No, what I was gonna ask,” she holds up a piece of paper, “is why she looks like _this_.” It’s her homework, where they were asked to draw their parents and how they see them. 

“Why does she look like this?”

Ruby looks at her drawing. The drawing version of Garnet had a sort of square afro. Her hair really doesn’t look like that, but Ruby had trouble drawing her hair, so she decided on that.

“Is it because of the hair? Sorry, but it was just soooo hard to draw it.”

“Okay, chill, girl, I didn’t say anything,” she holds her hands up, gesturing for Ruby to calm down. “I like the hair. Real creative. I just want to know why you gave her three eyes.” She steals the drawing a glance. “They’re all different colors, too.”

“Oh! That’s ‘cuz Garnet has future vision!”

Vidalia looks amused “Future… vision?”

“Uh-huh,” she bounces excitedly. “Garnet’s so smart, it’s like she has a sixth sense!”

Vidalia chuckles. “A third eye.” Ruby nods. “And why are they all different colors?”

“It’s because hers are,” she answers simply.

Vidalia tilts her head in askance for a moment, but she seems to have found the answer to her silent questions because she eventually nods in understanding. “Alright.”

Now it’s Ruby’s turn to tilt her head. “Is that it?” 

“Heh.” Vidalia puts the drawing away. “You wanna join the Art club?”

 

 

When Ruby’s outside of the school, she’s a little surprised when she couldn’t see any of her cousins. She knows that Amy, Iris and Ruben often head home without her, but Nat and Leslie always at least wait for her. She goes to the playground, hoping that they’re just waiting over there, and she’s surprised to find all quintuplets with another kid.

“Come on, guys,” Nat says, crouched down in front of a flower and fiddling with it. “Cut it out.”

“Y-yeah,” Leslie stutters like she usually does. “You’re bothering her.”

Iris just grunts disapprovingly beside them.

Ruby looks over where Ruben and Amy are standing over a petite girl with her long hair covering half of her face. She recognizes her as that one quiet kid in some of her classes.

“We just wanna know why this kid never shows her face,” Ruben says with a hand on her chin. “Hey!” The girl jumps. “Why’s your face always covered?”

The girl’s face is blank – well, from what she can still see – but her hands are trembling. 

Amy narrows her eyes and asks tactlessly, “are ya ugly or something?”

The girl purses her lips.

“Ooooookay,” Ruby chooses that moment to interrupt. “Break it up, guys, we gotta go home.”

“Eh,” Ruben shrugs and fetches her bag. “Whatever.”

One by one, they all walk away, and Ruby looks over to the girl again. She catches her staring at her, so the girl flinches and looks away.

“Uh…” she thinks of what to say. “You’re not going home yet?”

She turns to her, face expressionless, still. “I’m still waiting for my sister.”

“Oh.”

“Ruby!” she hears Ruben call her over and they both jump in surprise. “Come on! We’ll leave you behind if you don’t hurry!”

She looks at her cousin, then back at the girl. She was just considering waiting there with the girl when a teenager comes walking up to them. Her blonde hair was also covering her face. It must be her sister.

“Sorry I’m late, Sapphire,” the older girl who just arrived said and Ruby keeps in mind the petite girl’s name. “June made us practice for a bit longer.”

“It’s okay, Pearl,” Sapphire says as she picks her bag up. 

Sapphire looks at Ruby, and for some reason she feels flustered, and when she’s flustered, she usually isn’t very smart.

“Well, then! Bye-bye, Sapphy!” her face deeply reddens when she realizes what she just said and runs over to catch up to her cousins while repeatedly mumbling to herself.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid…”

 

The next day during English, she sees her, sitting primly with her back straight like usual. She’s sitting on front, so when Ruby enters the room, Sapphire immediately spots her and turns to look at her. 

“Hello, Ruby.”

Ruby’s surprised. “You know my name?”

She nods. “You know mine, too. ‘Sapphy’.”

“Ugh…” Ruby drags her hand over her slowly reddening face. “Please, just, forget about that. It was a stupid mistake.”

“Oh. Okay,” Sapphire visibly deflates and tilts her head. 

Ruby’s eyebrows rise at this. She points at her with wide eyes. “Wait. Do you _want_ me to call you that?”

Sapphire’s shoulders hunch and her cheeks taint a shade of pink, a sight that surprises Ruby – makes her want to smile. 

“You do!”

“N-no, I don’t!” she raises her voice. Ruby’s surprised about that, too. “I was just…” she purses her lips and looks away. “I never had someone give me a nickname before.” She pauses. “It was nice.”

Ruby’s speechless. She once talked about her with Nat and Leslie, and they thought it was weird how she never showed both her face and her emotions. They thought she was a robot. Now, looking at her, all flustered and embarrassed, she thinks she’s actually pretty cute.

“Pfft…” Ruby can’t help herself. She ends up laughing in front of their class, with Sapphire Bleu looking more and more flustered as she continues.

“Excuse me, Ruby Joule,” a voice says from behind Ruby, and her laughing fit is cut short when she sees that it’s their English teacher. “If you’re done laughing, would you mind finding your seat so I can begin the class.”

She stands at command. “Yes ma’am!” 

Seeing that the seat beside Sapphire is empty, like it always is, she proceeds to occupy it. Sapphire questioningly looks over at her, and she only answers with a smile.

Ever since then, she’s always sitting next to Sapphire when they have a class they both have. Eventually, they sat together during lunch when she doesn’t feel like sitting with her club mates, Steven and Peridot. She discovers that Sapphire wasn’t a robot, after all. She’s just quiet, and having hair covering half of face doesn’t really help her convey facial expressions. One day, she asks her if they can hang out after school, but she’s disheartened when Sapphire rejects her.

“Sorry,” Sapphire says as they walk home after school. Pearl still had Glee Club practice, so Ruby suggested it instead it of waiting for her sister. Their houses are in the same direction, after all. “My mom doesn’t really want me to hang out with kids she doesn’t know. Especially during school days.”

“Awe come on,” she tugs on her arm. “Then introduce me to her! I’m a good kid! Most of the time.”

Sapphire giggles at that. “She’s not home right now. And it’s still a school day.”

“Man, what a bummer…” she hunches her back then straightens again as she remembers something she’s always wanted to ask. “Hey, I’ve been wondering. Why _do_ you always cover your face up?”

“Huh? Oh. Um…” Sapphire stops walking, and Ruby does, too. “Promise me you won’t freak out… or think I’m weird… okay?”

Ruby doesn’t know why she would ever do that, but she nods anyway. “Cross my heart,” and she does.

Slowly, Sapphire’s hand reaches up to her own fringes and brushes them away, revealing one brilliantly blue eye and one very glassy white eye. Ruby almost gasps but holds it in.

“My left eye’s blind,” Sapphire explains as she tucks her hair behind her ears and Ruby realizes how beautiful she is. “When I was younger, the kids got freaked out every time they saw it, so I just covered them up.”

“Oh…” Ruby says quietly, almost embarrassed, but she doesn’t know why. Maybe because it’s her first time fully seeing her face. “Well, it’s really too bad.”

Sapphire looks at her, with her beautiful blue and white eyes. “Huh?”

“You’re really pretty. It’s too bad those stupid kids don’t see that.”

Sapphire’s cheeks tint, but she’s smiling. “Thanks. You’re pretty, too.”

Ruby blinks and her face reddens once again. “I-I’m not! I’m awesome!”

When they get to Sapphire’s house, Ruby doesn’t leave. Instead, they sit at the stairs in front of the doorway, talking until Pearl arrived. She pleads to Pearl if she could play with Sapphire for a bit longer, and she thankfully permits them as long as she’s there, too. When they get to the playground, Pearl just sits at a bench and reads a book while Ruby and Sapphire play on a seesaw.

“Are you sure you’re not freaked out by my eye?” Sapphire asks shyly.

“What! Of course not! It’s actually pretty cool. You’re like Garnet.”

“Garnet? Your sister?”

“Yeah. She was born with blue and brown eyes. Man, I wish I was, too. No one else knows ‘cus she hides it behind her shades. She says she doesn’t want to attract people’s attention that way. I guess you don’t, too, huh?”

Sapphire thinks about it. “I guess.” She places her hand where her left eye is. “One kid said it was ugly.”

“Well that kid was probably jealous. I think it’s really pretty.”

“I think they were just freaked out because I was different. Well, my eye colors are different.”

“Hmm… I think we did something like that during club activities. What was the word…?” She stops jumping on the seesaw, so Sapphire is left hanging in the air.

“R-ruby!”

“Oh! Sorry, haha” she settles her weight so they’re just sitting on it in equal height. “Symmetry! Right. That’s the word.”

“Symmetry. That’s when both sides are equal, right?”

Ruby nods. “Miss Vidalia said that an art piece is really pretty when it’s symmetrical, but it always isn’t the case. Asymmetry can be really beautiful, you know?”

When Sapphire doesn’t say anything and just stares at her, Ruby becomes flustered again.

“A-anyway…” she thinks of a way to change the subject. “Do I know the kids who used to bully you? You want me to beat them up?”

Sapphire giggles and Ruby decides that she really likes making her laugh.

The next day, Sapphire changes her hair a bit. Her blind eye is still covered by her hair, but her right blue eye is visible now. 

“What do you think?” Sapphire shyly asks.

“I think you look great.”

**Author's Note:**

> Pearl's trouble with how she's supposed to treat Lapis is inspired from my difficulty in interacting with my older half-siblings. They helped raise me when I was a baby, but we grew apart, and now we're practically strangers to each other. I want to reconnect with them, but the mix of shyness, anxiety and guilt prevents me from doing it. In the end, I either end up being too formal with them, or anxious that I'm too casual with them. It's hard because I know that we're siblings; I should just be casual with them, but they're also waaay older than me (like, 15 years give or take. Yeah. My dad's pretty old) and I feel like I should be formal with them as a way to show my respect. It's harder to do what's in between when you don't really know the person who's supposed to be related to you.


End file.
